Taleo Goes for a Bull Ride

Taleo TLEO continued its bull ride for the eighth consecutive day in a row Thursday to post an intraday gain of 17.21%, closing at $45.64 and setting a new 52-week high of $45.71.

In February alone, the stock has surged about 24% and has caught the eye of many investors.

Yesterday's mammoth price rise was a direct response to Oracle's ORCL announcement that they plan to acquire Taleo for $1.9 billion - or for $46 per share - as the stock's price moved to stabilize near the proposed acquisition price. Oracle has targeted Taleo to help establish a better position in the cloud computing market and to expand its public cloud offerings.

The move by Oracle would check rival SAP AG's SAP recent advances into the cloud computing market through the acquisition of companies like Successfactors SFSF. Oracle has been very aggressive in the cloud computing market lately, as more companies look to move from huge, resource-intensive data centers to the "cloud", which is often perceived as safer, more reliable, and cost-efficient.

Oracle, for example, acquired RightNow RNOW in late October of last year to boost its public cloud offerings, adding RightNow's customer service operations to its range of cloud solution.

Taleo, previously known as Recruitsoft, is a California-based application software company that has provided on-demand talent management software solutions on a subscription basis since 1999, with a focus on software for human resources departments. The company operates predominately in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia.

Two of the company's most important products are Taleo Enterprise and Taleo Business Edition, which are designed for medium to larger enterprises and smaller organizations respectively.

Taleo's services are gaining wide acceptance among employers, and numerous small and medium organizations now use Taleo's software solutions to aid in the hiring process. For those organizations, Taleo makes having an efficient human resource management system much easier.

With Oracle's acquisition of Taleo looking more and more as if it will go according to plan, Taleo's stock price appears increasingly unlikely to go much higher.

Still, investors should keep a watch out for any new developments. Taleo's latest earnings figures beat some analyst estimates yesterday, and the company remains strong.